Food - Drink
Why You Need To Let Your Pressure-Canned Foods Cool Naturally
By AMANDA BRETZ
With the recent advent of pressure cooking, it might be easy to confuse a pressure canner with a pressure cooker, but a pressure canner is used to process jarred food and give it a longer shelf life. Unlike pressure cooking, pressure canning is a lengthy endeavor, which includes a cool-off period after your jarred food has been processed.
Once your food is done canning, it's tempting to take the jars right out of the canner and move on to your next batch. However, you shouldn't disturb the canner in any way until the pressure returns to zero; once that's done, you must wait 10 minutes before removing the canner lid, then another 10 minutes before you remove the jars from the canner.
You must let your pressure-canned foods cool naturally, because shortcuts like throwing a wet towel over the canner or putting it in cold water can warp the canner lid, let liquid escape from the cans, or prevent your jars from sealing properly. The only safe way to help your canner cool down is to move it off the hot burner and onto a cool one.